Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
City boss disappointed by poor second-half display
PEP Guardiola admitted Manchester City were “really, really poor” as they slumped to their first home defeat in 15 months at the hands of Basel.
The runaway Premier League leaders were beaten 2-1 by the Swiss side after making six changes for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie last night.
The loss was not enough to prevent City progressing to the quarter-finals 5-2 on aggregate but Guardiola was frustrated by the drop in intensity.
“The first half was quite good but in the second half we forgot to attack, we forgot to play,” said Guardiola.
“Passing the ball means passing to move the opponents and attack — to pass for itself is nothing. The second half was really, really poor. We just passed for ourselves and that is not football.”
The result meant City have still not won both legs of a knockout tie in the Champions League but Guardiola took comfort from the obvious positive.
“Looking ahead this week we will be happy to be in the quarter-finals for the second time at this club,” he added.
“We are new in that position, so of course we are so happy for that.
“We will see the draw. When you are in the quarter-finals, at that level, all the teams will be so tough and demanding. “We will try to be ready.” City took the lead through Gabriel Jesus after eight minutes but Basel hit back to equalise nine minutes later through the impressive Mohamed Elyounoussi, who later set up Michael Lang’s 71st-minute winner.